We will be back in the Dagger Bar for a special daytime performance at the former International Tiki Marketplace (now, the Tiki Makeke) at Don the Beachcomber in Sunset Beach, CA.
Open to all ages and the Dagger Bar is free!
Also, it's the mug re-release party for the Vicious Virgin mug in brand new colors!
Don't miss your opportunity to get one of these exclusive mugs.
Hope to see you at Don the Beachcomber for the last Tiki Marketplace of 2016!
About a week ago, the "Inside the Desert Oasis Room Podcast" came to The Breezeway to talk about tiki, collecting, the reasons why some tiki bars 'work' and why others don't, and all kinds of other stuff... It's a free form conversation over cocktails with two of my oldest friends from the tiki world.
The following pictures are a loose follow-along to our conversation. Click on the pictures to enlarge, if you like... And with that, I guess all you have left to do is to click on the link below.
After seeing the Witco tiki bar that I found and bought a while back, Erich Troudt told me that he had the matching stools that he'd be willing to sell to me! They just needed a little work.
So I went out to his place and picked them up. You can see the whole story (and his incredible bar, here)
I was ecstatic about them as they sat, but I had visions of restoration in my mind...
I pulled the seat covers off of them and tore off the cushions.
The owner of the stools before Erich had clear coated them with some kind of shellac and it was looking pretty bad. After about 5 minutes of sweating and trying to scrape the stuff off, I thought about doing the unimaginable...
Re-burning these Witco stools. I've used my torch on a lot of wood and knew what to expect, but burning vintage Witco seemed like a dangerous idea. Like a sacrilegious idea...!
It seemed to be the only solution though.
Here are the side by side pics. The one on the right was torch burned and brushed with a bbq grill brush.
But after some Burt's Bees Wax meticulously rubbed in to them, I thought the results were absolutely incredible! Look at how that grain pops out of that swamp ash wood.
Next up were the stool covers. I found some material and had a guy in a shop in Costa Mesa make new covers based off of the old ones.
I love how they came out!
100 furniture tacks and staples and I fit them back on.
Astro approved, though his ears folded down makes him look a little concerned about being up on the stool.
The third annual "Curse of the Tiki" exotic variety show at Don the Beachcomber was another amazing and bizarre bash! A sold out crowd in Don the Beachcomber's Hidden Village witnessed sideshow acts, marionettes, a couple of costumed bands, magic, and a little burlesque tease!
All photos are by Sergio Garcia (unless otherwise noted)
The incredible 1960-built waterfall in Don the Beachcomber's Hidden Village and emcee, Dave Estala, prepping for the show.
The amazing marionette work of Rasputin's Marionettes!
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Witch Doctor
photo by Spike
All of Rasputin's Marionettes are hand made by Matt Scott. He honed his craft by working at the legendary Bob Baker theater in Los Angeles. What an incredibly weeeird and fun show!
After the marionettes, San Diego's Fink Bombs took the stage in Gilligan's Island costumes to play their brand of raw garage rock n roll.
They always wear those masks when they play, so it was kind of costume over costume action.
Pretty fun stuff!
Next up was GoGo Amy! A quick change artist, sideshow freak, fire eater, and contortionist, no one could take their eyes off of Amy.
She slid this tennis racket over her head and wiggled it all of the way down her body. Crazy.
Then, she swallowed this whole inflated balloon... Yeah. The whole thing.
And ate some fire.
After that, Dave brought a bunch of creatively dressed costume contest participants up on stage.
And the winners are......
photo: @beckipx
After all of that, it was our turn! Our girls were dressed as sea sirens... And I thought all of us guys were going to be dolphins... but everyone wore shark costumes, but me. Sooo yeah.
Shorty and Haylee
When we finished our set, the incredible Christopher Wonder hit the stage. I sincerely think he concerned some of the crowd. He does a lot of funny, amazing, and horrifying tricks with his pet chicken and one-eyed dog.
He also pokes fun at a lot of traditional magic tricks... Like the stiff rope trick.
photo by
But whatever he does, there's always a lot of confetti!
Then things got serious...
And Dave announced Miss Veronica Velvet
She mesmerized the crowd with her sultry dance to our own exotica tune, "The Hidden Village".
And we closed out the show with a rousing version of our "Surfing with Von Franco".
I want to thank everyone who helped make this show such a success; all of the performers, James Comfort, Dave Estala, my band and dancers, DB Sound Visions, the costume contestants, Sergio for the photos, and of course Don the Beachcomber for giving us such a perfect venue for all of this weirdness!
I keep putting this thing on because it's the Halloween show that I would want to see. So as long as you all keep coming to it, I'll keep putting it on for all of us!
